Thursday, August 23, 2012
Mo. man sentenced for $8M cattle fraud
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former central Missouri man has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for a pair of cattle fraud schemes that cost investors nearly $8 million.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says Kevin Ray Asbury won’t be eligible for parole under the sentence imposed today by Judge Nanette Laughrey.
Asbury pleaded guilty earlier to bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. The charges stemmed from investments he solicited from December 2006 to October 2008 involving R&K Angus Ranch, his former cattle business in Howard County.
Asbury admitted running a Ponzi-type operation, using investors’ money to cover his own expenses and to pay purported returns to earlier investors. He also obtained a $4 million line of credit from a bank by pledging as collateral thousands of cattle he did not own.